For years, the small town of Dover has been a mere blip on the map of Kansas – in fact; it does not appear at all on some maps. Until recently, when a Dover baker won a national pie-baking contest, even residents of Shawnee County, where Dover is…
This study explores what the town of Menoken, Menoken Township, Shawnee County, Kansas was like, and what happened to it. Menoken was eventually overtaken by bigger sister towns Topeka and Silver Lake. Methods include interviews, maps of the county…
In the late nineteenth century there was a passion for growth and development among Americans. Their dream was to own land and strike gold. In the case of many early Kansans, the gold would come from a sweet treat, sugar, processed from sugar beets…
The community of Tecumseh is located in Shawnee County, Kansas on the fringes of the state capital, Topeka. In the mid 1850s, proslavery settlers from Missouri founded the town. The first post office was established on March 3, 1855. Because of…
The history of Wakarusa, a town in Shawnee County, Kansas, located about eleven miles south of Topeka, dates back to the 1850s. Its name originates from the Wakarusa River valley, land that was originally inhabited by the Pottawatomie Indians. The…
